Her restaurant was always full and it seemed that a visit from celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay had done the trick and saved Charita Jones - aka Momma Cherri - from financial ruin. Her company is now in administration with debts of £200,000. So with a sprinkling of TV magic, a high profile and plenty of paying customers, what went wrong at Momma Cherri's Big House restaurant? Richard Gurner finds out.

To the general public things were looking up for restaurateur Charita Jones after her appearance on TV's Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares turned around her ailing restaurant.

Momma Cherri's, which could serve 45 covers in one sitting in Little East Street, Brighton, became a huge hit with customers thanks to its finger-licking Soul in a Bowl cuisine and the publicity from the Channel 4 show.

It boomed and 52-year-old Mrs Jones could not fit enough people in. A move to a bigger premises was necessary for the business to expand - but it was a move that would prove to be her undoing.

Business experts are now warning that the collapse of Mrs Jones's business will be one of many in the county this year.

The coming 12 months will be particularly tough for restaurants as the global credit crisis takes hold, according to the Federation of Small Businesses.

Chief spokesman Stephen Alambritis said with credit becoming less available, restaurateurs would feel the pinch both from their customers and bank managers.

Eighteen months ago Mrs Jones moved down the road from the original Soul Shack into the five-floor former Choy's restaurant, calling it the Big House.

The lease was bought on the basis of a bank loan covering the start-up costs.

However, when the banks refused to lend her the money she was forced to take out a series of smaller loans at higher interest rates.

Paying these back on top of the £7,000 a month lease has proved too much of a financial burden and yesterday The Argus revealed she had been forced to put her business into administration.

Mr Alambritis said: "When restaurants close down it's usually when people start to cut back on luxury items such as restaurant visits. With the credit crunch starting to bite we estimate that the sector to fall hardest in 2008 will be luxury items that people can go without.

"The banks are also getting edgy. Interest rates are coming down, which is a good sign, but banks are going to make less on their money.

"The timing of this restaurant going into administration probably lends itself to a bank manager not being happy with his Christmas figures and this restaurant is one of the first victims."

Since her appearance on Kitchen Nightmares, Mrs Jones's profile has soared and she has often appeared on TV and radio. Last year she had her own cookbook published.

She was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Sussex Business Awards 2006 and nominated for Sussex Business Person of the Year in 2007. She admits her public appearances meant she spent too much time away from the restaurant.

As well as these professional accolades and the book, Mrs Jones further boosted her profile by producing a new menu for school dinners at Woodingdean and Whitehawk primary schools in Brighton.

By giving talks on how to succeed in business to students and other business people, it seemed Momma Cherri's was going from strength to strength, with Brighton and Hove City Council even using her fame to encourage more people to take up fostering children - something Mrs Jones does herself. Yet behind the scenes, things were becoming increasingly difficult, with debts mounting and problems in the kitchen.

In November things were starting to look decidedly bleak and Mrs Jones issued a plea for financial backing, saying she feared she might go bust.

She said: "My only regret is expanding too fast and trying to please everyone.

When we were booking six months in advance we realised people would make the booking and then forget to come. We needed the space."

Things could not continue and with debts mounting she decided to seek the advice of accountants Baker Tilly, who told her the best course of action would be to put her business in administration to keep creditors at bay.

The restaurant closed over Christmas, but is expected to reopen this Saturday with Mrs Jones's daughter Katryna running it with a new company under licence from the administrators.

Susan Maund, joint administrator from Baker Tilly's Brighton office, said: "Momma Cherri's Big House will be open in early January and will continue to trade thereafter. It is very important that the business is preserved in its current format and we will do everything we can to ensure it is business as usual."

A buyer for the Big House is being sought, but whoever takes over the business will be in for a struggle.

Mr Alambritis said that, coupled with a highly competitive industry, especially in a place like Brighton, restaurants needed to have a stable base of customers to weather the storm and that 2008 would be a tough year.

Accountants KPMG have also stated the credit crunch could mean record numbers of people being declared bankrupt or insolvent in 2008.

It announced that stricter lending criteria and a Christmas spending blitz meant more than 130,000 borrowers were likely to enter into individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) or be declared bankrupt this year.

KPMG said its research showed 43,000 people used the IVA route to write off a portion of their debts in 2007. A further 67,000 were declared bankrupt.

Latest Government figures revealed that 565 Sussex people went into v o l u n t a r y bankruptcy in the third quarter of last year - up from 531 in the previous quarter. There are now more than 7,000 bankrupts and 2,200 people with IVAs in Sussex.

richard.gurner@theargus.co.uk

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